There’s plenty of flooding in the area and more rain expected today.

I personally prefer rain to snow (without the flooding part, of course) - it reminds me of Vancouver where it snows very little during the winter. It rains instead.

The gorge waterfalls are far more impressive after heavy rainfall. Though still officially ‘closed’ for winter, we ventured up Cascadilla Gorge last night up to the point where the path is first washed out. It’s likely passable, but since it was getting dark we turned back. Last week an enormous tree had fallen across the path below the stairs to the footbridge. The tree’s now done gone and washed away I guess!

The entire trail is in desperate need of clearing, cleanup and repair. I tried looking up information about how this is done each spring but didn’t find much of anything online. I would happily volunteer some time with a broom to sweep out rocks.

It seems Cornell Plantations manages the area but doesn’t have the proper budget to effectively do it. After a major flood in January of ‘96 the gorge was closed for more than a year before Cornell Plantations received federal repair funds to fix it.

I’m surprised there isn’t a clear community partnership dedicated to maintaining the trail. Doesn’t it seem logical to have a volunteer effort where groups could go in and assist in clearing and rebuilding it? The Plantations lists many volunteer opportunities, but none that are relevant to the gorge trail. I randomly found that in spring ‘98 the Cornell Outing Club helped clear out debris.

Considering Cornell University advertises the gorge trail as a passage from downtown to the university, shouldn’t they be more actively involved in coordinating cleanup?

I just don’t understand how, in over 75 years of the trail’s existence, there isn’t a more active response team in place to keep Cascadilla Gorge operating for students, locals and tourists to enjoy.

As a side note - below the frat houses along the rim there’s a flow of trash indicating these people have no real respect for their surroundings, or guilt about using the gorge as a natural landfill. And why are there no trash bins at the entrances to the trail with signs requesting ‘carry in, carry out”?

Obviously there’s no easy solution to managing the area, but how about some evidence of an attempt?

We’ve been in Ithaca for nearly five months, and have photographic evidence to prove it!
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After the heavy rainfall on the weekend, I walked up Cascadilla Gorge to see the falls flowing something fierce. Lots of people were checking it out, it was beautiful!

From a photographic standpoint, I think it’s the best time to shoot long exposures with a tripod since the muddy water should give more definition to the streaking flow. I didn’t bring my tripod this time, and just the digital cam. This morning there was quite a bit of rain again, so I may head up there with the tripod today.

The photo album has been updated, too >

Tomorrow morning I have a meeting at the Cornell darkroom to find out about using the facilities through the spring semester. It’s been about ten years since I did any printing, so it would be exciting to get back to doing that. I’ve shot several rolls of film here so there’s lots to print! Mmmm, I can smell those tasty chemicals already…

Now that we’re well into fall it’s time for another photographic adventure through Ithaca…

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I’ve been using my film SLR camera quite a bit lately, and took some photos in Cascadilla Gorge. When I got the film back the other day I was quite excited with the results of these two shots:

I did some research online looking for photo tips when shooting waterfalls. Hopefully the info was good, because I used it. Today was beautiful and hot, so I headed up to Cornell and took some shots around the grounds. I also brought my tripod for shooting the waterfalls in the gorge. In a few hours I shot two+ rolls, so I should end up with a handful of decent images. I can’t wait until the leaves are turned colour - I hear by the 2nd week of October they should be in their fullest glory. In Vancouver we don’t really see the leaves turn. They’re either green all year or just go straight to brown and fall off.

While most of you are still tucked in bed each morning, Matt is headed up the bluff to work and I’m joining him for some morning exercise!

There is a path a few blocks from our place that connects downtown Ithaca to Cornell. The path is made up of slate staircases that are crudely maintained and beside a series of waterfalls in the Cascadilla Gorge. The hike to Cornell takes about 1/2 an hour, but I accompany Matt for about 2/3 of it for the time being. He says the last bit is especially treacherous but there’s an impressive waterfall in the final leg.

Here are some pics I took this morning:

At the moment the water flow is quite low. This path is closed in the winter after first snowfall. Even now there’s potential for accidents as the slate on some of the stairs is crushed and loose. Parts are really wet and slimy too. But wow, pretty, huh?